April 3, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Gn 1:1-2:2 + Gn 22:1-18 + Ex 14:15-15:1 + Is 55:1-11 + Ps 51:12-19 + Rom 6:3-11 + Mt 28:1-10
I was wandering through the garden section of a store last week anxious to get some spring flowers started, but not quite trusting the Oklahoma springtime. Among the various garden tools, fountains, and ornaments was a great fire-pit on sale for $275.00. These things seem to be in style for the patio dwellers among us, and it’s not surprising. Fire light, fire warmth and the mood these can cast over us even after the fireplace inside our homes is cleaned out from the last winter evening is long lasting.
Our ancestors huddled around fires to ward off cold and the dangers of the night.
In that firelight they told stories about where to find food and water, how to survive, and they retold the stories of their great ones. As the night wore on, they wondered again and again about who they were, where they came from, and where they were going. God was in their stories; and we are still doing the same thing. Dancing flames enchant us with warmth and peace. Around them we form friendships and deepen family bonds. Sometimes we sit in silence and sometimes ask the same questions our ancestors asked about who we are, where we came from and where we are going. God too is in our stories.
Tonight with ancient ritual behavior we have done it again. We have quieted the chaos of contemporary urban life with the warmth and intimacy of a fire. We have shared our collective story of how God has called mothers and fathers like Abraham and Sarah, leaders and prophets like Moses and Miriam to birth us and lead us out of slavery. In spite of our unfaithfulness to the Covenant God has with us, God remains faithful and sent his only Son to confirm the Covenant with his own Body and Blood. He came to show us the way home, and he died to show us that no tomb cannot hold love down.
The one who is light, and truth, and the way is also the life giving water, and he has led us through that water once more to dry land and the promise. The stone is rolled away and the tomb is empty. There is nothing for us now among the dead because we are among the living. We come to know ourselves as living not because we breathe, but because we believe. Those who have gone down into the waters of Baptism have risen to new life. Those anointed with the Chrism of Salvation are anointed by and with and within the anointed one himself. Those who share the Body and Blood of Christ share in the victory feast.
We gather in the darkness of this Holy Night year after year because we have seen the light and fear no darkness. We tell again the story of who we are, where we have come from, and where we are going. This is the story of God’s faithfulness through all time, and the story of what makes us the People of God. This is the story that gives our lives meaning and hope for a future where death is only a birth into more and greater life.
For the last three nights we have been telling the greatest and most profound love story any one could imagine. Now the risen one stands among us wounded yet reaching for us to warm, heal, quench our thirst and feed our body and our souls with his Body and his Blood. What can we say: but Alleluia, Amen!
This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad.